I’m severely torn about whether to listen to the State of the Union message tonight or not. On the one hand I don’t like listening to Trump. I didn’t watch his television program. I thought he was obnoxious and unamusing then and I think he’s obnoxious and unamusing now.
On the other hand it’s news and who knows? He might say something interesting.
You might miss a real treat. Trump is the most gifted public speaker of my time, and I remember Presidents all the way back to Eisenhower. Trump’s ability to connect with his audience is better even than Bill Clinton’s, who was the best before Trump. I didn’t get Reagan.
Your liberalism is blinding you to the reality around you. It also works directly against your own interests, both financial and family wise.
I haven’t watched a State Of The Union in more than ten years now, opting instead to read the transcript in the morning as well as catched the highlights on the cable news coverage.
For one thing, the pageantry is utter ridiculous.
For another, the speech is *always* over-hyped in terms of what it means going forward. FiveThirtyEight has reviewed past SOTUs and found that they generally have no measurable impact on Presidential job approval, for example.
Finally, the bar is typically set low enough that all any President has to do is not get up there and sound like a blithering idiot and even their harshest critic will be saying how “Presidential” they were. In Trump’s case, expectations will be so low that he’ll be lauded as long as he doesn’t get up there and start throwing French Friest out of a McDonalds take-out bag at Nancy Pelosi.
So have some sympathy for your sanity and skip it. Watch a good movie or something. Go for a walk (unless it’s just too freaking cold for that). Anything. It will be a better use of time than watching the annual Speech From The Throne.
If by “most gifted public speaker of my time” you mean he has an uncanny ability to cause people, particularly but not limited to his detractors, to take leave of their faculties, I agree.
Doug:
Actually, if I knew that would happen, I would definitely watch.
It would at least be entertaining.
Trump is a great communicator, with his base. They love the bragging and don’t care that he is lying a good deal of the time when he is bragging. They love the name calling. The blaming everyone else for their problems and his problems. The many promises. Going on about how he loves America (except when he was old enough to actually serve it, LOL).
However, if you are not part of that base, it comes across as juvenile with a lot of posturing and fake claims. Personally, I don’t watch political speeches unless I catch a bit on TV at work or if the wife has one on. If i feel the need, I read them. Much faster.
Steve
I haven’t watched one in a long time. The SOTU speeches encapsulate almost everything wrong with the Washington bubble.
This year could be different though since Trump like to break traditions (to put it mildly). However, I’m still not going to watch. I can’t take much of his speech patterns but more than that I’m sure I won’t be able to stand the commentary and “analysis” by the supposed media experts who will cover it.
I currently time-shift all of my limited TV watching (except for live sports), so I see no reason to make an except for President Trump.
Andy,
Trump did a joint address last February that really wasn’t much of anything. As long as he sticks to the teleprompter, he’ll be okay.